CURRENT MISSION

Working in Sydney as an IT professional, living with my partner and expecting a child in March 2009.

ABOUT ME

I am usually described as a nice, witty person.
Other people describe me as an idiot. Who knows ?

Anyway, I don't know, have a look at my last.fm profile for music tastes, facebook profile for ... well ... junk, or my orkut profile for the rest.

http://www.last.fm/user/haylem/
http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=12065625770981337791
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=721282216

PHILOSOPHY

I think a famous quote would highlight my philosophy in a rather concise way, courtesy of the Ramones:
"Hey! Ho! Let's go!"

Or Gandhi's:
"Live as if you were going to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were going to live forever." That's pretty much the way I (try to) live my life.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

aaahhhhh... [pause]
well I guess being one of those who just travels and hijack other people's place *actually* is a contribution: if there wasn't a need for this, there would be no service ;)

We now live in London with my partner and our son, and unfortunately we only have one very small couch, but hopefully we'll move (again) soon.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I never used such a service before, but I guess you could say I did a lot of "informal" couchsurfing in a few countries: england, china, japan, germany, france...

That's usually fun, you get to meet people, share a drink. It's definitely a more "hands-on" way of experiencing another country's culture, even though that doesn't necessarily mean everything you'll come across while couch-surfing will be representative of a given country.

Interests

music, movies, drunken socio-political rants (we all do enjoy these, especially when we're the drunk ones in the conversation, don't we?), sports (climbing, soccer, sailing, tennis, snowboard and skiing, surfing, you name it...)

• culture
• drinking
• movies
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• surfing
• sailing
• skiing
• snowboarding
• sports
• rock climbing
• soccer
• tennis

Music, Movies, and Books

http://www.last.fm/user/haylem/
http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=12065625770981337791
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=721282216

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

is that a bragging contest or what?! ;)

dunno.
jumped from a train once.
decided to travel to China in 2 days.
decided to travel to Australia in 2 days (and hey, apparently pretty much every living creature in Oz can kill you. That's what you call a challenge)
got on my way for an impromptu trip to Germany in 2 hours (and took a friend with me on my way there. If I go down, I take people with me).

other "amazing" stuff might be amazing or not for some people, that just depends on the context and on those people's backgrounds. I guess I have a normal life.
Bummer, heh ?

Teach, Learn, Share

My favorite quotes might do the job here:
"Live as if you were going to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were going to live forever" - Gandhi

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it" - Alan Kay

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" - Asimov (as Hardin, in "Foundation")

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, China, France, Germany, United Kingdom